Grand Blanc coach Chris Belcher was named Co-Coach of the Year for the Associated Press Class A All-State team. Grand Blanc went 22-1 this season. (MLive.com file photo)

FLINT TOWNSHIP, MI -- Denzell Watts leaves the Carman-Ainsworth basketball program as one of the best players to ever be a part of it. While his all-time rank among fellow Cavaliers greats is up for debate, his place in the program’s history is not.

Watts is the first player from Carman-Ainsworth to become a two-time Associated Press All-State selection, which became official when the Class A team was released Friday, March 22.

The senior point guard headed to play Division I college basketball at the University of Alabama-Birmingham also made the All-State team as a junior and was a McDonald’s All-American nominee this season.

“For me, it’s just a really great honor because I know there have been a lot of great players to come out of Carman-Ainsworth,” said Watts, who averaged 19.8 points per game for the Cavs this season. “To be the first guy to get All-State back-to-back, that’s pretty special.”

Watts is also part of a 2013 class of basketball talent in the Flint-area that has been one of the best to come through in recent years.

“The level of basketball around Flint in the class I’m coming out of is really great and that’s something I think we all take a lot of pride in,” Watts said. “You talk about guys like Monte (Morris) and Erick Layton (both Class C All-State selections) who I played with in the summer and some of the other guys around. There have been a lot of really good players and really good teams the last four years.”

Carman-Ainsworth finished 17-4 this season and won the Saginaw Valley League South Division. The Cavs were knocked off by Swartz Creek in a first-round district game, putting a sour ending on an otherwise successful season.

“Honestly, I still think it was overall a great season, just not how it ended,” Watts said. “We started the year off kind of slow and weren’t playing good and we came back from that to be able to win the league. We really turned things around this year from the way we started.”

Watts emerged on the prep hoops scene as a high-scoring sophomore, but has since become a more complete player. He grew into the role of being a defensive stopper this season and was also one of the Cavs leading rebounders, despite being just 5-11.

“The big thing that continued to develop with Denzell was his consistency in effort,” Carman-Ainsworth coach Bob Root said. “He really stepped up as a leader and just in terms of maturity, he became a better all-around player. We threw some more responsibility and different things at him this year and he really accepted that role.”

Watts was the only area player to make the AP Class A All-State team, but Grand Blanc coach Chris Belcher was selected as the team’s Co-Coach of the Year -- an honor he shared with Eric Krause from Midland.

Belcher led Grand Blanc to a 22-1 record and its first-ever 20-0 regular season. The Bobcats beat Fenton for a district championship before losing to Lapeer West in the regional semifinals.

“It’s always the hardest thing to tell kids after a (season-ending) loss that it doesn’t tarnish what they’ve done,” Belcher said. “We did some things that were special and that had never been done before at Grand Blanc. We take a lot of pride in that.”

Grand Blanc senior Bart Williams was named special mention for the All-State team. Fenton seniors Cory Cox and Eric Readman, along with Swartz Creek senior J.D. Tisdale and Flint Southwestern freshman Miles Bridges all received honorable mention.